Obion County announced today its participation in the ACT Work Ready Communities initiative, a workforce system designed to assist sites and regions in developing their workforce pipeline to provide skilled workers for employers. Held at the Humboldt Medical Center, the Kick-off Celebration recognized the efforts of the Obion County Work Ready committee and 10 other counties in northwest Tennessee as the first counties in Tennessee to launch the program.

Obion County has been accepted into the ACT Work Ready Communities Academy, an executive leadership and training program for local officials. The Work Ready Communities framework allows each participating community to quantify and improve the skill levels of its workforce through a standardized workforce skill credential and a robust data infrastructure that help measure, identify, and close skill gaps.

As communities sign up and begin to work toward their certification goals, they will empower:

  • Business and industry to identify the foundational skills they need for a productive workforce and easily communicate their needs
  • Individuals to understand what skills are required by employers and how to prepare themselves for success
  • Policy makers to consistently measure the skills gap at the national, state, and local levels
  • Educators with tools and industry-recognized credentials to help close the skills gap
  • Economic developers with an on-demand reporting tool to market the quality of the local workforce.

Obion County is one of only 11 counties in the state participating in the 2-year project, all of which are located in northwest Tennessee. Obion County Mayor Benny McGuire states, "The goal is to have more than 868 people in Obion County certified during the project and to bring on board at least 31 employers supporting ACT WorkKeys Job Profiling and the National Career Readiness Certificate. As of today we are at 85% of the goals we are set to attain by May 2017. I'd like to encourage our employer community to support this initiative as we go forward in order to continue to move beyond our goals!"

For more information about Obion County's progress, go to http://workreadycommunities.org/TN/131
For general information on this initiative, go to http://workreadycommunities.org.
For more information on all of ACT's workforce solutions, go to http://act.org/workforce.

The Work Ready Community Initiative is a collaboration of community partners led by the Northwest TN Workforce Board. For more information on the northwest Tennessee ACT Work Ready Community efforts, contact Ginger Powell at 731-784-5221.